


Ready as I'll ever be

by MelodyGarnet



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Gen, tbh kinda angsty, with occasional comedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-02
Updated: 2018-06-02
Packaged: 2019-05-17 09:21:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14829615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelodyGarnet/pseuds/MelodyGarnet
Summary: Roman, born a peasant, left behind his childhood friend Virgil to pursue his dreams. Even after he's become as a knight, he wishes he could be as beloved as King Thomas. One day, Roman starts acting strange and weird black roses are growing everywhere.Roman stages a coup, Patton wants to burn stuff, Logan disobeys science and Virgil becomes a leader. What is going on?





	Ready as I'll ever be

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by this sanders side fanvid animation but not completely that story  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNqneoesKvw
> 
> GO WATCH IT, IT'S AMAZING
> 
> basically i wrote this last night to procrastinate on studying for exams; sorry if tenses are weird and all over the place

King Thomas is a bad king.

That’s what Roman is convinced of. He used to think he was just a peasant who didn’t know anything about kingship. Virgil always called him overly romantic, back when they were two brats in a small village on the border – but he was sure now. King Thomas is a bad king. He doesn't deserve to be so beloved by all.

Roman deserves that love. Roman deserves to be king.

He’d become a knight, fulfilled his childhood dreams, but it still wasn’t enough. He’d thought he’d had it all. A respected knighthood, the trust of the beloved king – it was worth nothing now. He’d heard the news.

_Weren’t there tensions in the borderlands?_

           Rumours.

_Why was King Thomas feasting?_

                                                           Whispers.

_Roman’s home is on the border, what if_

**_his home is gone and it’s Thomas’ fault._ **

* * *

 

 

All around the kingdom, black roses grow and the people change. A shadowy fog enters the castle.

 

* * *

 

The black roses are everywhere now, all across the border. Virgil had to admit it was an efficient barrier and a suspiciously well-timed one, too. There had been some raids in the borderlands last month; a neighbouring warlord had started showing interest in the area. The wealth accumulated under young King Thomas’ rule had attracted him.

The roses can protect his home now that Sir Roman won’t.

Virgil idly walks by the roses as he thinks about his best friend. It’s been ages since the peasant-turned-knight last visited his home town. Months, at least.

He’d turned up with a snarky royal advisor in tow, Logan, who’d been sent to the region to oversee a new agricultural experiment or something. The man was a stuck-up ass, but one with enough common sense to balance out Roman’s idealism. The banter between the three of them was hilarious. He’d gotten to know the man quite well since Roman had dropped him off. Gods above, how long has it been?

_It must have been cold_ , Virgil remembers, _Roman gave me that soft red scarf_. Not yet spring, and yet the knight had insisted on taking his usual walk in the woods. _Typical princey_ , Virgil snorts in amusement. He turns away from the rosebushes on the border and heads home.

Roman had come back from the woods all odd, Virgil remembers sadly. Logan had asked where the knight had found a bundle of roses in January, but he’d snarled back instead of bantering. Virgil had barely been able to say goodbye before the knight had disappeared back to the capital.

Roman had been acting so odd… Had he finally given up on a depressed, lowly peasant now that he’d become a shining knight? Virgil couldn’t help but wonder.

 

* * *

 

“Logaaaan!” The royal advisor turns around from his agricultural experiment just in time to get tackled.

“Patton”, he yells indignantly, “get off me!”

The royal cook does so while ineffectually patting the dust off Logan’s clothes. “I’m sorry for my enthusiasm, kiddo, but I’m just so darn glad to see ya!”

Logan adjusts his advisor’s uniform and mutters: “I do not know why you must insist on calling me “kiddo” when you know perfectly well we are the same age.”

Logan looks closely at his dear, if somewhat annoying friend.

“What are you even doing here? I thought your duties required for you to remain with the king’s retinue at all times. I was not informed King Thomas would be visiting”, the advisor starts fussing with his papers, “I am not prepared for this situation!”

Patton stops smiling and gets serious-- Logan promptly drops his papers.

“Logan…The king is being held captive by Sir Roman; he claims he deserves the throne. He’s even wearing a strange crown of black roses. Darn it, most of the kingdom is wearing them, they do what he says without question. I had to run for my life when Talyn tried to stab me with a kitchen knife. Can you believe that? Talyn! Adorable-kitten-Talyn!”

Patton got worked up now. “They’re saying King Thomas is a bad king, Logan, I don’t understand it! The kingdom’s gone all weird and Sir Roman isn’t acting like Roman at all. It’s like we’re in this weird reality and I don’t have friends or family at all anymore except for you and we’re gonna have to fight everyone. And everywhere there are these darn roses, I just wanna burn ‘em all!”

The young cook wipes his eyes after the outburst. He breathes, hard and fast, as he waits for his best friend to compute what he said: “Well?!”

Logan was a man of science and reason. He believed in forming a hypothesis and testing it extensively. He believed in research, in using multiple sources, and checking those sources against each other. But this was Patton and he was crying. So. Screw science.

“Let’s burn the roses.”

 

* * *

 

Thomas has been cuffed to this chair for ages now, forced to watch as his friend took over the kingdom and chased off whoever was still loyal to the king. He’s been hearing reports of an army coming for the castle, not sure whether it was his own people or the invading force who’d tried crossing the border some weeks back.

Roman seems sure, though. He’s convinced that this army and the invaders are one and the same. He mutters as he plans battles, he yells when the famous “unnamed general” sees through the knight’s strategies, he swears he’ll get revenge for his home town.

Thomas wasn’t even aware that that town on the border had fallen. In the dead of night, he’d grieved for his friend Logan and even grieved for Roman’s loss. By day, the king had tried to talk in on Roman. He’d needled and begged to be released so he could lead the royal army against the invaders.

At every turn, impetuous Roman was being outsmarted by the clever unnamed general. With every defeat, Roman became more stubborn and unreasonable. Again and again he had been defeated.

Now, the army is waiting outside the castle walls. It’s roaring, chanting a name Thomas can’t understand from inside the castle.

“I know you think I’m the bad guy.”

Thomas looks over to where Roman is overlooking the army at the gates. There’s been a literal shadow hanging around the knight for days, but it’s getting realer by the second. It almost looks like a cloak, now.

_That shadow…_ he knows it has something to do with the way his people started obeying the knight without question.

“I know that you can still stop this”, the king says.

Roman laughs sharply. “No, I can’t. I thought I could be a better king than you. I thought I could protect the kingdom. I guess I’ll go down fighting these animals, but at least I tried to do something. You partied while I lost _everything_. You deserved to lose that crown.”

“We never received word the border had fallen”, Thomas repeated.

“I’m not listening to your deceitful words anymore. I know that I’m right”, Roman said as he threw open the window to the balcony.

The king’s eyes went wide as he finally understood what the army was chanting. They were chanting his name.

“Roman!”, he shouts over the din, “Roman, the army isn’t an invasion! They’re here for me! You don’t need to fight them!”

Roman laughs maniacally as he leans on the balcony’s balustrade. “Now I know you’re lying, Thomas! You’ve been lying all along!”

The shadow around him finally settles into a cloak and hood, almost obscuring the crown of black roses on the knight’s brow. “I can clearly hear them and they’re not shouting your name at all!”

Thomas frowns. The army is definitely screaming his name. What does Roman think he’s hearing?

Roman’s black cloak is whipping madly around him as he stands on the balcony, a mockery of the noble red cloak he used to wear.

“Well, I’m ready as I’ll ever be! I’ll kill them all or die trying!” Roman takes out his katana and points it at the army at the gates.

 

* * *

 

The small army still loyal to their king had finally reached the castle gates. And now they’re here.

The final siege.

Rosebushes are burning all around and Virgil can barely see it through the smoke but there it is. There’s the castle tower, and a figure in a black cape is standing on the balcony.

A hand on his shoulder makes him jump, but he barely lets it show. His anxiety’s gotten worse and better at the same time--a battlefield is terrifying, but if you don’t get over yourself, you’re dead. He turns to see Logan and Patton waiting on him.

They’re waiting on him to start the battle.

Somehow, he’d become the rebel army’s general. _Pure dumb luck_ , he explains every time they want to compliment him on the promotion. He’d been by Logan’s side in the first battle, and he’d recognized Roman’s strategies well enough to counter them. How could he not? Roman and he have been playing King and His Knight since they were little.

So here he is. A peasant-made-general fighting a peasant-made-king.

Not to kill Roman, whatever he’d made the rest of the army believe, he could never do that. But to find out what made his best friend change and maybe, just maybe, turn him back. Everyone in the palace at the time of the coup agreed that Sir Roman had not been himself for ages. What if it _wasn’t_ him?

Virgil won’t give up hope. _Not on my Roman_ , he promises himself, as he wraps the bright red scarf around his neck.

“Are you ready?’, Logan asks.

Virgil sighs and nods.

“Ready as I’ll ever be.”

 

* * *

 

 Virgil ducks as another guardsmen lunges his way. Logan trips him up and Patton finishes the man off with a _clang!_ of a frying pan.

“You’re getting the hang of that thing!”, Virgil laughs as he picks up the unconscious guard’s spear.

At some point, they’d all lost their weapons in the melée and had been forced to improvise. The cramped castle hallways had turned the siege into a brawl quite quickly.

Patton had taken care of the kitchens and servant’s quarters, Logan had made sure the courtiers’ rooms were secure and Virgil had co-ordinated the two-pronged attack as long as he could before the fight turned to pure chaos.

It wasn’t as loud as it would have been in a normal battle, though. The strangely obedient people defending Roman’s rule were eerily quiet, only going through the motions of fighting. They were easily defeated, and meek once captured. Virgil thanked his lucky stars for anything that turned the battle in their favour.

He was also grateful that the people’s strange behaviour strengthened the soldiers’ belief that black magic was at play. _Surely, something more was going on_ , Virgil thought as the trio advanced to the throne room, _something that could explain how and why Roman’s character had changed so completely._

Virgil barely had the time to look around the throne room, when his attention was pulled to the dais by a dramatic shout: “Stop!”

Roman- _Roman, no, please-_ was holding his katana to the king’s neck. Virgil almost lost his footing. _It was all so wrong_.

Vertigo hit him as Virgil saw his childhood friend for the first time in ages. The otherwise impeccable knight looked utterly dishevelled, with crazy hair and crumpled clothes. His handsome face was marred by a grimace. His eyes skipped around, like they couldn’t focus on anything.

Roman grinned and pushed the bound king away once he saw that he had everyone’s attention. He pointed the katana at Virgil: “So you’re the famous general who slipped through my defences. We meet at last.”

Virgil blinked. _At last?_ “Roman, stop! Why are you doing this? Why betray us all?”

Roman looked equally taking aback: “I betrayed no one from your country.”

 “Falsehood!” Logan interjects so suddenly it makes everyone jump. _Why is he-?_ Virgil notices the king moving up on Roman’s back. _Oh. Distraction, got it._ The advisor starts to loudly count on his fingers: “You betrayed the knight’s code, you betrayed your country, you-“

Patton pitches in and points at Virgil: “Why, you betrayed your best buddy Virgil over there, too.”

Something strange happens at the mention of the name. Roman stares at Virgil, blinks rapidly, frowns and lowers his katana. For the first time since they entered, Roman _isn’t_ looking right through him. The moment flies by too fast.

“No”, Roman says, “No, I know what’s happening here. You’re trying to confuse me but you can’t!”

He raises his voice and waves his arms, utterly out of control. The black cloak rises up around Roman, dark and menacing. “I know the truth! YOU’re the invaders! You came here, you ruined EVERYTHING. I HAD to become king. KING THOMAS IS A BAD KING!”

Roman’s voice breaks.

“HA!”

Out of nowhere king Thomas jumps on Roman’s back. The two fall to the ground and out of sight as the fight in the throne room breaks out once again.

“Roman!” The clanging of swords fills the room and Virgil can’t hear what’s happening. Fear crawls up Virgil’s throat. He tries to get closer, slowly, too slow. The melée is chaos. Virgil blocks, spins, advances and retreats. “Roman!”

Finally, he reaches the dais.

“Uh…”

Thomas is sitting on Roman’s back, tugging at the black rose crown like it’s glued down, while Roman’s cloak is choking Thomas. The cloak is. Choking the king. By itself. Logan arrives at his side and is equally baffled: “The crown and the cloak are enchanted. Huh. I feel like I should have deduced that somehow.”

Patton appears next to him with a huge grin. “You said ‘I feel’, Logan. I’m so proud of you!”

“Will. Someone. Help me?!” King Thomas chokes out.

“Oh right!”, the duo yelps as they dive to help their king out. The king lets go of the crown and grabs at the wildly flapping black coat instead.

As Roman’s crown is released, the knight falls back on his belly. He squirms to get loose, yelling and cursing, a snake caught in a trap. Closer now, Virgil can see that his eyes are yellow.

The Roman Virgil knew seems completely gone. Virgil tosses the spear away as he drops to his knees in front of the dais. He can’t fight anymore. He’s lost everything he was fighting for.

He reaches out and catches Roman’s face in his hands.

“Roman”, he whispers sadly.

Roman stills and looks at him. Slowly, his eyes lose the yellow, his face turns insecure. “Virgil?”

_Snap!_

Thomas finally rips the cloak off and pins it to the ground with a sword. Roman’s eyes flicker yellow again. With a snarl, he sits up and turns around to take the cloak back.

Then he stops. Virgil is there, holding him back. He can’t fight Virgil.

Moving ever so slowly, Virgil takes the crown off. Roman lets him. He has no need to be king anymore.

With some quick thinking, Logan pins the now-fleeing cloak to the dais with his sword. The cloak turns into a black swirling mass and then, a wounded man lying on the ground. He would be handsome, but his eyes glow yellow and his smile is cold. Parts of his face look covered in snake skin.

“Who are you”, king Thomas demands as he picks up Roman’s katana, “And why did you enchant my knight?”

“Come now, he enchanted _himself_!”, the nameless sorcerer nonchalantly waves away the accusation. “Poor peasant Roman, feeling unworthy but so arrogant at the same time. Thinks he deserved to be loved by all, needing it like air. He wanted my help so _badly_ , he did half the work for me.”

The man sounds charming, jovial, convincing. He sounds like he’s calmly explaining how to catch a fish rather than enchanting an innocent man to break his vows.

“Now, I couldn’t convince him with wealth; it didn’t quite work with glory either. But then, I had it! People _always_ believe they’re doing the right thing for revenge. So I just had to whisper in his ear about his _hometown_ and his _Virgil_ at the right moment…”

As the speech goes on, Roman turns away and sinks deep into Virgil’s arms.

“I’m sorry”, he whispers. In shame, he hides his face.

“It’s okay”, Virgin says and hugs him closer.

“One fabricated rumour later and suddenly you have the most honourable knight of them all betraying his king for the sake of revenge!” , the sorcerer finishes proudly, stunning all with his lack of remorse.

Furious with this disgusting man, Virgil grabs the crown of roses and throws it into the throne room’s hearth with a shout.

The man shrieks, then turns to shadow once more. The shadow flies out of the window before anyone can move. The sword is still sticking out the ground where he lay.

The sorcerer has escaped.

“Well, that’s gonna come back and bite us in the butt”, Patton concludes. Logan rolls his eyes long-sufferingly while Thomas loses it at his friends’ antics. Relieved that it’s all over, the king goes in for a bear hug. Virgil buries his face in Roman’s hair and lets out a grateful sigh.

  

* * *

 

In the hearth, the last of the black roses burns up. Around them, the fighting stops.

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by this sanders side fanvid animation but not completely that story  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNqneoesKvw
> 
> GO WATCH IT, IT'S AMAZING


End file.
